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A leading provider of Web Design, Ecommerce Development and Intranet Development services based in Leeds West Yorkshire
Looking for Amazon / Ebay integrated Ecommerce? See Cascade for details

Giant Systems Ltd - Web Design LeedsTel: 0113 380 1741


We believe web design is about more than producing attractive sites.  We develop websites that play a central role in the success of our clients businesses.  We also provide cutting edge ecommerce sites that allow customers to sell products across a range of portals including Amazon, Ebay and Play. 

                                       

To find out how to reduce your current workload and increase your sales by integrating across these portals contact us now for a free demo of Cascade.

Web Design

Web DesignWeb design is about much more than creating design that is fancy, or amongst the latest wave of intuitive design. Any website that is designed to be used for a sales or marketing purpose needs to be both insightful and easy to utilise by repeat and first time users.

Giant Systems occupies a major link in the Leeds web design network. We design, develop and maintain affordable, effective and high quality websites that are:
  • Stylishly designed and easy to navigate.
  • Carefully constructed to ensure compliance with accessibility guidelines
  • Editable using a WYSIWYG editor, allowing you to take control and make updates to your website.
  • Optimised to ensure you have the best chance of obtaining a top listing in the major search engines.



Bespoke Software

Bespoke SoftwareWe provide a wide range of bespoke software including ecommerce Software, Windows Applications and Content Management Systems.

Bespoke Software   


Content Management

FlexCMS, our content management system is fully functional, allowing developers to create complex, multilingual websites with a wide range of features.

Content Management   

Ecommerce

Cascade, our  ecommerce system is a stable secure ecommerce framework which allows developers to create complex ecommerce websites. These websites can cater toward multiple languages and currencies, as well as integration with 3rd party marketplaces.

Ecommerce   

Ecommerce Websites

EcommerceEcommerce Development is about much more than creating visually appealing websites. We provide tailor made ecommerce websites that deliver genuine results and high sales volumes.
Some features of our sites include:

  • An easy to navigate product catalogue which encourages users to make purchases.
  • Integration with Amazon / eBay and other online sales portals.
  • Integration with internal stock management and customer relationship management systems providing seamless management of orders and customer accounts.
Our detailed understanding of how well designed websites can increase sales for a wide range of businesses helps us to provide a service that is hard to match.


Ecommerce Web Design   

Integrating Amazon, Ebay and Play.com with our Ecommerce system, Cascade

In contrast, web development is less defined; and can be used to describe a wide array of services. At Giant Systems we are able to accommodate requirements from advanced intranet applications to ecommerce solutions, to straightforward HTML & CSS projects.

Giant Systems integrate client Ecommerce websites with Amazon, eBay and Play.com through our Cascade system.

This integration allows you to seamlessly sell on Amazon, eBay and Play.com from one central location.

Cascade allows a client's product inventory to be stored in a single centralised system. This then enables the user to display up to the minute information relating to available stock levels and products across their own site, as well as integrated 3rd party sites that they are selling on such as Amazon and eBay.

In addition to reducing the administration involved in storing and listing products, Cascade actively increases sales and profit margins by:
  • Selling on Amazon, eBay, and Play.com
  • Competitively re-pricing products listed on Amazon and Play.com
  • Intelligently re-listing products on eBay
We are also working on integrating Cascade with a number of other online sales portals with the final aim of making it the most comprehensive channel management solution available on the market today.

Currently in the pipeline for integration are enabling selling on Tazbar, Gemm, Musicstack, Kelkoo, Pricerunner, and Ciao.

Whatever the task, we are passionate about our website design and development, and endeavor in making every project a success. This provides a crucial part in the build and development of our clients’ businesses based in Leeds and throughout the UK.



Web Design Blog

25/09/2009- What makes a web site effective?

Ever considered what constitutes an effective web design? We have...and we’d like to share it with you.

Our web design criteria consist of two main sections; Graphic Design and Strategy. There are several sub headings that come under these two major headings.

Graphic Design

Found it!

It’s the feeling you get when you’re browsing websites, and then you find one think ‘that’s what I’m looking for!’ at a single glance. This is an important point you must bear in mind because research has shown that website visitors take only a fraction of a second to decided if the web site, and it’s associated web design is conveying the information they’re are looking for. Ironically, visitors make this judgement without even reading the information that they are searching for.

We think that a clean, crisp looking site that give this off this impression. Slim headers are a must, with an appropriate image and a relatively short headline of 6-12 words. Shorter ‘landing’ pages are also good as it avoids enforcing excessive scrolling for the user.

Credibility

Credibility is all about avoiding scams and sticking to something customers think they can trust. It’s interesting to note that people tend to consider quality of web design as a strong indicator of quality of product. There is a particular level of graphic design that communicates credibility. Chances are, if your web design looks “homemade”, then users will jump to the same conclusion about your product. Always try and use professional web designers and graphic designers when putting together a website and any marketing material.

Focus

When you arrive on the website, you want the user to know where to look straight away, and where to focus. If there are too many links and banners on the page, it’s difficult to know where you need to click. A straight forward approach would be to simplify your navigation to match what the majority of your visitors will be looking for, and then offer visually prominent links to those items.

Strategy


The second section is called strategy. When you arrive on a website it needs to be obvious what the site is about, and how you are meant to interact with it

A good direction to go in would be the following:

- Introduce the context/ industry that you are operating under- and explain the problems
- Outline what your product does and how it can assist in/ resolving your problem
- Explain how your product/service provides its results.


Offer

Once you’ve generated interest in your potential customer, it makes sense to try and take it to the next step. With many products that may be a purchase, but in some cases it may be a free trial, or a proposal.


19/08/20009- The drawbacks of Twitter

If configured incorrectly (and it can easily happen!) Twitter is nothing more than a mighty spam engine. It is abused by a small percentage of users, and if you don’t monitor your Twitter thoroughly you might find your account morphing into nothing more than an additional junk mail folder of annoying and irrelevant “tweets”.

A recent study taken out by Twitter said that it considered 40% of all tweets to be “pointless babble”. And to make things worse, there are software applications such as “My Twitter Butler”- a piece of desktop software which facilitates spamming by autofollowing users based on key words, and permitting mass sending of DMs to followers. As expected, Twitter doesn’t like My Twitter Butler. The Twitter corporation recently threatened the software developer behind My Twitter Butler to stop the application straight away because it uses the Twitter name, and infringes Twitters own terms of service.

Good on Twitter you might say. Because this kind of spamming is now so common it is annoying to everyone, apart from the spammers themselves. But what about all the other software developments who use the Twitter name? Twitteriffic, Twitterholic and Twittercounter, TwitterFon and Twitterfox amongst others. Why let others use the Twitter trademark, but attack the software developers they don’t like?

However, Twitter should be able to effectively enforce its terms and conditions at the platform level, without the need for expensive law cases.

So be wary of Twitter. The platform itself is now peppered by spammers, and it is perhaps a little difficult to take the company seriously when it threatens one developer over his use of the word 'Twitter' in a product name but actually encourages another that uses 'Twitter'.

05/08/2009- Amazon web services and Amazon ecommerce services

What are Amazon Web services (AWS) and Amazon ecommerce services (ECS)?

If you are a high volume seller it is very likely that you are already successfully using these services. If not then read on to see what AWS and ECS have to offer...

What are Amazon web services (AWS)?

AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a service provided by Amazon that allows the user direct access to Amazon’s technology platforms. Such access gives you the opportunity to develop web applications, web tools and websites built upon the Amazon platform.

What are Amazon ecommerce services (ECS)?

ECS (Amazon ecommerce services) is the shortening known for the Amazon.co.uk Associate are of Amazon Web Services. Amazon.co.uk Associates can use this service to acquire information on Amazon.co.uk products and other website functionality in real time and for no fee.

Examples

ECS allows users to access catalogue information for Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and other Amazon websites such as Amazon.de and Amazon.fr via an interface. Examples of product information include title, artist, latest price (Amazon MarketPlace and Amazon Seller Central), customer reviews.
An example of functionality might be the list of accessories to the item requested, a list of items similar to the item observed, and so on.

What are the benefits of using AWS and ECS?

By owning a website you can integrate the product information and real time feeds on functionality flawlessly into your own ecommerce website. Your website will updates with the latest information from Amazon on their products.
Web developers are also benefiting from using these services to build into ecommerce applications for Amazon customers, retailers and website owners. Our own piece of software- Cascade is fully integrated with Amazon web and ecommerce services to provide up the minute details on Amazon products for our clients.

Where do I find out more about AWS and ECS?

To find out further information about Amazon Web Services see http://www.amazon.com/webservices


If you are a high volume seller it is very likely that you are already successfully using these services. If not then read on to see what AWS and ECS have to offer...

04/08/2009- Up & coming changes to categories on eBay.co.uk and eBay.com

eBay has said that there will be changes to a number of an assortment of categories, sub categories and item specifics.

Is your category on the list? According to a recent announcement the main categories to be affected are:

- Tickets and Travel
- Home and Garden
- Books
- Comics and Magazines
- Property

These changes are going to come into play in the week commencing the 22nd September, so multi sellers be ready!

This also mean that we will have to make some tweaks to our Cascade software in time to accomodate them. We'll make sure that there will be no glitches in the centralised system that streamlines sales not just through eBay, but also Amazon, Play and Priceminister from a centralised inventory/ user interface for a number of our clients.

Our Web Design Principles


Building Blocks for Ecommerce Business

At Giant Systems we know how difficult it is to get an online retail business of the ground. That’s why we offer a series of solutions that together provide a fully integrated platform to boost sales and revenue by using one easy management system.

Our product Flexecommerce offers the following benefits:
  • Manage inventory across multiple selling channels including eBay, Amazon, Play, your own ecommerce site and numerous shopping portals.
  • Save you time and money due to numerous task automations and intelligent listing
  • Upload inventory in bulk
  • Competitively price your product at a low price with the automatic re-pricing function
  • Receive business reports to keep track of your processes
  • Warehousing- so that you can organise stock between various places of storage

A Common Sense Approach to Website Usability

Websites should be designed to allow the user to find the information they are seeking with ease. As Steve Krugg points out in his book “Don’t make me think – a common sense approach to web usability” we don’t read webpages, we scan them. With this in mind we strongly believe that websites should have a simple design and allow the customer to find what they are looking for quickly.

Our websites are designed with:

  • Clear navigation structures on each page
  • Compliance with accepted conventions in terms of navigation structure in well designed websites
  • Minimise the time required for the user to find the required information
  • Make if clear where the user is now and where they can go (what is clickable)

Bespoke Content Management and Ecommerce

We have developed our own content management system using ASP.NET 2.0 and Telerik Rad Controls.  This content management system allows us to create bespoke websites and Ecommerce applications. 
All our software applications (including our content management system) are developed using best practices.
Our content managed websites and Ecommerce websites are developed using ASP.NET 2.0/C#. 

We employ a three tier architecture when developing such sites which allows us to build on complex functionality with ease.

Accessible Websites


The Disability Discrimination Act 1999 requires that businesses make “reasonable adjustments” to the services they offer to ensure these services are accessible to all disabled users.  As this act applies to the provision of websites, web designers must ensure the sites they produce are accessible to users with non-standard web browsers such as screen readers.


Many web designers fail to comply with the law in terms of providing accessible websites.  At Giant Systems we ensure that all the websites which we provide comply with the W3C’s Priority 1 Accessibility Guidelines.  We often go further than this and implement some of the recommendations outlined in the W3C’s Priority 2 and 3 guidelines.


We also test our websites in many non-standard browsers and attempt to comply with the recommendations outlined by the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

A Leeds based Web Design company that helps its clients to build successful businesses.

We are a Leeds based web design company who take a great deal of care to ensure that our clients gain maximum benefit from their website.

We believe that websites play an essential role in the success of most businesses, with this in mind we aim to develop long term relationships with our clients and grow with them. We design our websites with this aim in mind ensuring that websites are carefully planned and make a real impact in terms of boosting sales in the short and long term.

Make Giant Systems your first call for web design in Leeds - 0113 380 1741.

Search Engine Optimisation

Straightforward advice on how to improve your website's ranking in Google and other major search engines. A well designed and constructed website is more likely to gain a higher ranking in Google. We take a great deal of care to ensure that all our websites:
  • Are constructed using valid XHTML Transitional and valid CSS
  • Render well in all modern browsers including IE5+, Mozilla, Firefox (all versions), Safari 2.0 and all other major internet browsers.
  • Contain relevant meta tags.
We also provide consultation as to the search keywords which should be used, for example in this page our chosen keywords are Web Design Leeds, Ecommerce Leeds, and Content Management Leeds. Hence these phrases appear both in this page's meta tags and within this page.

Developing web applications that bring tangible benefits to businesses

We do more than simply build and develop websites, before commencing work on a project we take time to understand a clients business and what makes that business successful.

Gaining a solid understanding of a clients business allows us to develop a clear picture of how the web can be used to improve business processes, increase profit margins and sales.

Regardless of the type of project, be it an Ecommerce website, a content managed website or an intranet this process is essential if web application is to bring genuine benefit to a business.






Giant Systems LTD - Web Design Leeds, Forsyth Business Centre, 117 The Headrow, Leeds LS1 5JW
Vat Registration No: 882 802702